Bodies are piling up in Donetsk morgues after Kiev unleashed fighter jets and artillery on the country’s southeast just hours after the presidential election. New leader-elect Petro Poroshenko is pushing for the crackdown to become even “more effective.”

Ukraine’s southeast saw only a brief suspension of Kiev’s
military operations on Sunday while the nation took to the polls.
Just before the presidential election, Ukrainian MPs called for
immediate troop withdrawal from the country’s southeast.

Following the vote, the leading candidate – billionaire chocolate
tycoon Petro Poroshenko – said he sees no reason why the military
should stop the operation.

“I support its continuation, but demand a change in its
format – it must be shorter and it must be more effective,
military units must be better equipped,” he said, despite
earlier statements that he is ready for dialogue with the
self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics.

Soon after the last vote was cast, the Kiev military descended on
the southeast with new energy, shelling Slavyansk and attacking
the airport in Donetsk with mortars.

The number of victims is not yet known. According to the prime
minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic,
Aleksandr Boroday, 100 self-defense forces and civilians died in
Donetsk during the attack. Donetsk authorities reported that
about 40 people died and 43 others were injured.

In Slavyansk, at least three civilians died, including one woman.

“We see what that means today – shelling against civilians,
bombs that fall near occupied apartment blocks, fighter jets, and
helicopter launches against an urban population,” analyst
Daniel Patrick Welch told RT, adding that talks were never part
of Poroshenko's plan.

“We came up to look at the man but he was already dead. A
shell had fallen right next to a nine-story apartment block, all
the glass was out. The man’s head was bleeding, his arms and legs
were broken,” a Slavyansk resident told RT. Civilian
quarters of the city – which is home to about 130,000 people
–came under fire for the first time on Monday.

“When we went further, we found a dead woman near a teachers
college, a shell hit there too,” a local added, saying that
a third man was found nearby.

On Tuesday, reports appeared of a possible fourth victim among
the civilians in Slavyansk. A woman was also killed near the
Church of the Reigning Mother of God, according to a message on
the website of the Gorlovsk and Slavyansk Eparchy of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church. It added that the building of the
church was damaged along with an apartment building and student
dormitory nearby.

“A bomb fell just 10 meters from the church. Fortunately,
there were no people in the church at that time," the
message reads.

On Tuesday, Ukrainian fighter jets and helicopters were unleashed
at armed self-defense forces occupying the airport in the city of
Donetsk.

Army helicopter just passed over us, fired towards airport and
left. Black smoke is rising over the train station building
#Donetsk

Meanwhile, the city’s central railway station was also shelled on
Tuesday. One civilian was killed and two others – including an
eight-year-old boy – were injured, the region's administration
told RIA Novosti.

Government troops reportedly launched mortar fire on a private
housing area in Donetsk on the same day.

Later in the day, the military stepped up the offensive, and
fighting in Donetsk continued throughout the night around the
airport, which was then taken under control by Ukrainian troops.

On Monday, Vice Premier Vitaly Yaryoma stressed that the
operation will continue until not a single self-defense fighter
“is left on the territory of Ukraine.”

“We saw the results yesterday,” Yaryoma added.

Kiev first launched a punitive military operation in the volatile
southeastern regions of Donetsk and Lugansk back in April.
Following a coup in Kiev, the two proclaimed their independence
from the new authorities, with the desire to break away seeing
landslide support in May 11 referendums.